On the Crustal Matter of Magnetars

TL;DR

This paper explores the properties of dense crustal matter in magnetars using relativistic models and magnetic fields, revealing significant changes in matter characteristics at different crustal regions.

Contribution

It applies a relativistic Thomas-Fermi model with strong magnetic fields to study crustal matter, incorporating various nuclear equations of state, which is a novel approach in magnetar research.

Findings

Significant changes in crustal matter properties due to magnetic fields.

Differences observed between outer and inner crust characteristics.

Use of multiple nuclear equations of state for comprehensive analysis.

Abstract

We have investigated some of the properties of dense sub-nuclear matter at the crustal region (both the outer crust and the inner crust region) of a magnetar. The relativistic version of Thomas-Fermi (TF) model is used in presence of strong quantizing magnetic field for the outer crust matter. The compressed matter in the outer crust, which is a crystal of metallic iron, is replaced by a regular array of spherically symmetric Wigner-Seitz (WS) cells. In the inner crust region, a mixture of iron and heavier neutron rich nuclei along with electrons and free neutrons has been considered. Conventional Harrison-Wheeler (HW) and Bethe-Baym-Pethick (BBP) equation of states are used for the nuclear mass formula. A lot of significant changes in the characteristic properties of dense crustal matter, both at the outer crust and the inner crust, have been observed.